


The Gothic Novel

by audrey1nd



Category: Blossom Culp Series - Richard Peck
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 21:00:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/602023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/audrey1nd/pseuds/audrey1nd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Blossom is secretly a gothic thriller writer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Gothic Novel

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aaronlisa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aaronlisa/gifts).



> Unbetaed, so all mistakes are mine.

I suppose I should tell you how it came to pass that I, Blossom Culp, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, literally, came to be Mrs. Alexander Armsworth, famous author. It was all on account of both of us having the Gift. The ability to see into the Spirit World and the Unseen, that is. It runs in my blood, what with my mother being part gypsy and all. Where Alexander got it I will never know. But the both of us having it is how we got to know each other and that's why we ended up together in the end.

It all started in our junior year of high school. I had become a right good hand at writing to go along with my spelling skills. I didn’t know for what use they were, but I reckoned I could figure something out. For once in my life, Letty Shambaugh did me a good turn, not that she has any idea she did so. The Sunny Thoughts and Busy Fingers Sisterhood, a group made up of Letty and her friends, were passing around a newspaper during class and whispering furiously about it. Our English teacher, Miss Caldwell, snatched the paper as Tess was passing it to Bess. “Just what is it that you all find more interesting than our discussion about Jane Eyre?” She looked at the page of the paper that was folded outward. “Ah, a perfect example of the gothic literature that was so popular over thirty years ago. The gothic thriller, sometimes known as a penny dreadful when serialized, is not proper reading for young ladies. I do not want to see anything of this type again in my class unless it just happens to be part of a newspaper brought in for class.” She threw the newspaper in the rubbish bin. Letty’s face fell. “But now how will I know what happens next?” she whined. 

“I don’t care. Just as long as it is not in my classroom,” Miss Caldwell replied. She turned back to the board and began writing out a list of the characters in Jane Eyre.

Letty being upset over something usually made me quite happy, but in this case I also wanted to see what had been written in that newspaper. If Letty was interested in the story, it was probably quite popular, though the quality was most likely very low. This got me to thinking. I was a good hand at writing. If I knew what these stories were like, I’m sure I could write a passable one and maybe even make some money off of it. After class I snuck back in and grabbed the newspaper out of the bin.

Just as I was tucking it into my coat, Alexander happened to walk into the room. At this point in time he was still trying to pretend that his Gift didn’t exist. Our Gifts were different. Alexander could only see ghosts, where mine gave me visions of the future or past, and once even transported me seventy years into the future! “Now what are you skulking around here for, Blossom?” Alexander was extremely suspicious of my actions and liked to accuse me of things, even if there was no possible way for me to have done them. 

“Waiting for you,” I answered, having some fun with him.

“I knew it!” he cried. “Wait, how did you know I would be here? Have you been spying on me again Blossom?” His face got red as he remembered that I’d seen him buck naked last time.

I just laughed at him and left, dodging him as he tried to block me. I went to the library and holed up on one of the shelves to read the story. As I sat there reading it, I wondered what Alexander was up to. Hopefully he wasn’t planning another prank on Old Man Leverette again. I usually found out about those and was able thwart their plans. I’d have to sneak around and find out what he was up to. I could probably trick him into walking me home after school tomorrow. The story seemed simple enough. It was just a story about a girl in some peril, a villain, a hero and a little of the supernatural thrown in. I could do that easy. I had plenty of experience with the supernatural even if my only experience with boys involved tricking Alexander into kissing me.

I rustled up some paper from my school bag and a writing implement and began to write my own story. I figured the best way was to stick to what I knew. So I decided to write about a ghost Alexander and I had met a while back and helped out, changing the details when needed.

While I was writing on my shelf I heard the scuffle of shoes and a swish of cloth. I looked down and saw what could only have been a freshman crawling around on his hands and knees with a toothbrush in his hands, just like Alexander had been when we were freshmen. Which solved the mystery of what Alexander had been doing skulking about after class. I thought he’d given up on such childish things, but I guess he just couldn’t turn down the opportunity to be top dog when it came down to it. Last year, when we were sophomores and his fraternity, Iota Beta Nu, was “recruiting,” Alexander hadn’t been allowed to help and he had been right sore about it. 

Well, it seemed as if Alexander was having his fun again. Which meant that it was only a matter of time until they started pranking Old Man Leverette again. Which was in no way a smart idea these days, not that it ever was. About a year back he and Miss Fairweather had gotten hitched. Since then anyone looking to mess with his property or steal some chickens had gotten a nasty surprise. I won’t be to impolite as to say what it was, only that it made it so certain people had issues with their backsides. There wasn’t an outhouse anymore and Miss Fairweather had had the place outfitted with indoor plumbing. 

But back to what happened that caused me to becoming an author. A while after I wrote that first story and had sent it off to the paper I received a letter in the mail. Now as it isn’t often that Mama and I receive mail, she was immediately suspicious that I had received some of my own. However, unlike the letter from Queen Mary I got back when that whole thing with the Titanic happened, she didn’t open it. It was a good thing she didn’t or the five dollars they had sent me would have disappeared without me knowing it had even existed. 

After I realized how well they paid for something like what I had written, I wrote them back, inquiring how much they would pay me to give them a story every week, like how the story Letty had been reading was done. Just a few days later I got a letter back asking if I would be willing to write a story for them lasting five weeks, each section about the length of the first one I had sent in. Of course, they thought that my name was Flora Faute, but that was just a detail to keep others from getting into my business. 

It only got better the next week. Letty and her “sisterhood,” were passing around my newest story, having talked about my first one in whispered tones all through lunch the week before. I smiled to myself before slinking into the library to work on my paper for Miss Caldwell’s class. Once again I ran into Alexander, skulking about, probably on his fraternity business.

“Goddangit Blossom, why are you always hanging around?”

“Well, if you weren’t always getting into trouble, I wouldn’t need to be there to stop it now, would I?” I said, playing on a hunch that he was planning something.

“I wish you would just stay out of it. I don’t need your help.”

“Okay. I just thought you might not want to get embarrassed in front of your little recruit.”

Alexander gave me a calculating look before stomping back out of the library. I laughed to myself. Boys always seemed to be the same. Acting like they knew everything and were perfect all the time. 

The next day during lunch Alexander skulked over to where I was sitting below the shade tree. “Meet me by the flagpole after school. I have something to talk to you about,” he muttered before walking away. I smiled. 

For once, Alexander didn’t seem too embarrassed to be seen with me in front of other people when I met him at the flagpole after school. I had expected him to make it look like we weren’t actually walking home together until we’d gone out of sight of the school, but instead he just looked relieved when I showed up.

“Well?” I asked expectantly. “What did you want to talk about?”

He stared at his feet and shuffled them about, suddenly shy. “C’mon,” he said as he started walking, I walked with him, wondering why he seemed so down, shuffling along with his hands in his pockets. Once we’d gotten a bit further from the school so that no one was walking near us he started talking. “I was hoping I could get your help on something. Being that you’re a girl and all I was hoping you could help me out with something.”

I sighed, disappointed. He was probably going to ask me something to do with Letty. I waited for him to get to the point.

“Now as I am making my way up in the ranks of my fraternity I don’t have time for the silly things that girls care about. So, as a girl, I was wondering what would stop you from pestering a boy that you like?”

Well it seemed that Alexander was finally going to give me the heave ho. What with him always denying his Gift, it only seemed a matter of time before he tried to get rid of me, too. 

“Not to say that I don’t have time for some girls, just you know, not this one in particular. Anyways, can you help me get Letty to stop bothering me, please?”

I smiled. So it wasn’t me he was trying to get rid of. “Well if you want my advice, Alexander, I would just ignore her. Don’t talk to her, don’t go anywhere with her and don’t encourage her in any way. And definitely don’t give her your fraternity pin.” I laughed at that one. I’d stopped him from giving it to her before and I was stopping him from doing it again. “She’ll lose interest soon enough. Girls like Letty can only remember so many things at once. Besides, I hear Les Dawson has started courting her.”

Alexander laughed outright at that. “Les Dawson and Letty Shambaugh? Who would have ever thought of that.”

“Oh, I saw that years ago. I always wondered how it came to be.”

“You’ll always be an original, won’t you Blossom? Always going to be different from everyone else.” 

By that time we had arrived by what was known locally as the Ghost Barn on account of that’s where Alexander saw a ghost a whole bunch of years back. 

“Well, thanks for the advice Blossom. It’s nice to know that not all girls are like Letty.” He patted me on the shoulder before heading over towards his house.

I had another letter waiting for me when I got home, but this time Mama had opened it. She grunted at me and pointed at the letter. She didn’t have her teeth in, so her face had a sunken look to it. I sighed. Well, there went my savings. But at least Mama didn’t know what I was doing being as she can’t read. She pulled out the a five dollar bill I knew had been in the envelope from somewhere in the folds of her skirt, waved it around and then put it back wherever it had come from. She pointed at my clothing as well. I had purchased a new shirtwaist and a long skirt for myself with my earnings being as I was now too old for short skirts. I pretended to look surprised at the cash and said, “Miss Dabney must have sent it. She sent these too,” I pointed at my outfit, “saying that I needed to be outfitted like a proper young lady.” Mama looked satisfied and shuffled off to poke around the kitchen. I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing I’d have to give a different address if I wanted to keep my money.

I had successfully been picking up my mail from the post office for a number of weeks when Alexander leaned up behind me in homeroom one morning and whispered, “Say, Blossom, I was reading a story in the newspaper the other day and it seemed awfully like that time freshman year when we helped out that princess.” Alexander narrowed his eyes at me, his blond mop of hair falling into his eyes making him seem perfectly harmless.

“Now Alexander, you know perfectly well that I don’t read any silly stories in the newspaper,” I replied, smiling to myself. “If you want to know about some story, you might want to ask Letty. I heard her and her gang talking about some story at lunch the other day.” Which was true. I had heard Letty comparing herself to Rose, the heroine. Of course, she was really the foolish Lenore, but Letty thought too much of herself to realize that. 

“Did you tell anyone about it? Because however much fuss it all caused, I never said anything about the princess.”

“Now Alexander, why would I go around doing a thing like that?” I smiled at him sweetly.

He huffed in frustration. He knew he’d never get anything out of me. “Well all I know is that you better meet me at the flagpole after school.” He leaned back in his seat and looked away, as if nothing had happened. 

After school Alexander was waiting impatiently by the flagpole, scuffing his feet in the dirt as he waited. He looked up at my approach, but instead of starting to walk and just letting me catch up as had been his custom in the past, he waited for me before he started walking. However, what was like usual was the fact that he didn’t start talking until we were out of sight of the school. 

“Now Blossom, you tell me straight, who did you tell about the princess?”

“I didn’t tell anyone Alexander, promise.”

Alexander looked thoughtful at that. “How’d you do on our last English essay,” he said, quite out of the blue after being silent for a long while. 

“Quite well, thank you very much,” I replied haughtily. I might be poor, but I was right good at school and didn’t mind people knowing, unlike some boys I knew. 

By that time we were at the barn at the edge of Alexander’s property, known locally as the Ghost Barn on account of there being a ghost there once that Alexander had seen. 

“Well, this is me.” The Ghost Barn is about where we have to split for Alexander to go up to his house and for me to cross the tracks to get to mine. 

“Now wait just a minute Blossom. I’ve been thinking. You’ve been looking an awful lot better lately. And if you say you didn’t tell anyone else about the princess, I believe you.” I was getting awful nervous and made to leave, but Alexander grabbed at my arm, pulling me back towards him. He looked at me hand and then dropped his hand away, realizing he had been holding my hand and staring into my eyes. 

I laughed. “I’m so glad. Now if I’m going to do as well on the Jane Eyre essay, I’m going to have to get down to it and read the book while there’s still some daylight left. Mama don’t look well upon me staying up at night reading.” I hoped he would forget the leap of logic he was about to make in the face of his embarrassment at holding my hand. Unfortunately, luck was not on my side that afternoon.

Alexander spluttered, before picking his train of thought back up and continuing. “I believe you didn’t tell anyone. So that means that it must be you writing those stories. Else someone else must have a very good imagination that happens to run very close to our own real lives.” 

I started to laugh him off, but the look Alexander gave me stopped me. I looked down at my feet, embarrassed to be caught using my powers to help myself instead of helping other people. Well, I wasn’t really using my powers directly, but I was telling about them in a way that made me money, and that was almost as bad as Mama telling fake fortunes. 

“Now don’t be like that Blossom. Your stories are swell. I just wish you hadn’t made us so recognizable.” 

I laughed at that. “Letty thinks she’s just like Rose. I don’t think me coming out and telling her that the stories are written by me would make her realize just which character is based on her, so I don’t think you have anything to worry about. No one’s going to start interviewing you about the Egyptian princess you met.”

Alexander smiled at that. “I guess you have a point.” He scuffed his shoe again. “Much as it pains me to say it now that I know it’s you writing about us, I’m kind of looking forward to the next installment.”

I looked hard at Alexander then. It was clear in my stories that Rose, who was the fictional version of myself, was going to end up in a romantic relationship with the hero, who was based on Alexander. 

“You can have my copy, if you really can’t wait.” I blushed, because Alexander’s character, David, finally kissed Rose in the latest installment. 

“No, that’s okay. I like the suspense of not knowing what’s going to happen next.” Alexander smiled at me, before finally turning towards his house and walking across his lawn. 

The next week Alexander approached me during lunch, not skulking about like he usually did when he wanted to talk to me. “Can I walk you home today, Blossom?” He asked shyly. 

I nodded, realizing that he’d probably read my newest installment and wanted to talk to me about it.

When he met me at the flagpole after school, Alexander blushed. He shook his head and gave me a strange look. “Well, am I walking you home, or not?”

I gave Alexander a look. This had been his idea. But I didn’t want him backing out on me, so I smiled. “Let’s go then.”

Alexander smiled and started walking.

We walked home in silence, pausing by the Ghost Barn, as had become our custom over the years. Alexander looked at me and reached out for my hand, holding it between two of his. He leaned in and planted a kiss on me. I’d been doing that to him for years, but he’d never seemed to be too happy about it. Alexander blushed furiously and let go of my hand.

“Blossom, you and I have been through a lot together. Even though sometimes you drag me into things that I maybe don’t want to be involved in,” I rolled my eyes at this, “I always end up the better for it.” Alexander blushed at this and ran his fingers through his hair. “And well, that story of yours, it got me to thinking. I mean, I know you’ve been sweet on me and all that, and I guess I’ve just been a little slow on the uptake. What I’m saying is, well, I’m sweet on you too and I’d like it if we could go together.”

“Oh, I don’t know, Alexander. What would your mother think?”

Alexander paled at the thought of his mother, which was practical since she was almost as scary as my mama, though in entirely different ways. 

“Never mind my mother. Besides, my father likes you plenty. Will you go with me?”

I laughed. “Oh, Alexander, of course I will. I was only kidding about your mother.”

“Good.” He smiled and then leaned in to kiss me again. 

Well, I think you can imagine what happened from there. Alexander’s mother put up quite a fuss, but eventually his father talked her round. After all, by the time Alexander proposed, I was writing under my real name and my stories had been published as real books. Mama was upset when she found out about what I’d been keeping from her, but as I was able to keep her in style, she was perfectly happy once Alexander and I settled down.


End file.
